Tag: charity

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Rugby Star Thom Evans Goes Bare For Charity

Thom Evans – photo: Daniel Jeams

Thom Evans, former Scottish international rugby union player, will auction off the beguiling and provocative photo above (shot by British fashion photographer Daniel Jaems) to raise money for UK’s leading sexual health charity, Terrence Higgins Trust.

The charity works to reduce the spread of HIV and promote good sexual health and provide services to people with, affected by, or at risk of contracting HIV.

The Auction, the Trust’s major annual event, will be held on April 11. Bids for Evans seductive snap will begin at $2,000.

Evans focus shifted to modeling after a 2010 neck injury brought his rugby career to a close.

You may recall Evans previous work for the Dieux Du Stade calendar.

Check out this bonus shot Evans shared from the Jaems shoot on his Instagram below.

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A Lovely (Underwear) Party

Lony Pizarro

Boy Culture‘s Matt Rettenmund recently attended the official NYFW Chulo Underwear Party, and has the pics to prove it. About Chulo Underwear:

“CHULO is a new a line of clothing and gear that is culturally-relevant to today’s marginalized youth of color. Our mission as a company is to inspire young people to invest in a brand that invests in them. Each time a young person buys the brand, s/he is having a direct and immediate impact on his/her own community because proceeds are reinvested back into a local CBO, scholarship program or charity that services these very same youth. “To do this, CHULO partners with local community centers to identify, educate, train and ultimately hire young people to be part of the CHULO design team as artists, designers, writers, promoters, vendors and/or promotional spokespersons. ​ “The CHULO brand is now one-year old. We have partnered with the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), Uprose Brooklyn, and Tropical Images’ GKOTS (Get Kids Off The Street Program. We have also donated to several other programs including El Museo del Barrio, the American Indian College Fund, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade Scholars Program, the Loisaida Center, El Maestro Boxing Club and Cultural Center, the LGBT Arts Program of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, the Caribbean Cultural Center, and the GED Program at Taino Towers.”

Venezuela-born Lony Pizarro (above) was just one of the underwear models who chatted for charity. Head over to Boy Culture for many, many more pics from the evening.

Underwear can certainly be sexy and fun, but it can also represent issues in our lives sometimes. In another post, I wrote about a gay ex-Mormon man who made the decision to lose his ‘magic underwear.’
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George Michael Quietly Donated Millions To Help Abused & Bullied Children

George Michael

As the world reels from the passing of pop music star George Michael, we learn he was even more generous in private than most knew.

Michael had secretly been giving millions to a charity that helped UK children who were the target of abuse and/or bullying.

Via The Irish Times:

Behind the headlines and huge on-stage persona, George Michael was a generous man who kept quiet about his considerable charitable donations, it has emerged. The star donated all the royalties from his 1996 number one single Jesus To A Child to charity, and is said to have given a gameshow contestant thousands of pounds to fund her IVF treatment.

Michael has helped countless children as a result of his donations to Childline, the charity’s founder and president Dame Esther Rantzen said. “For years now he has been the most extraordinarily generous philanthropist, giving money to Childline, but he was determined not to make his generosity public so no-one outside the charity knew how much he gave to the nation’s most vulnerable children,” she told the Press Association.

“Over the years he gave us millions and we were planning next year, as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations to create, we hoped, a big concert in tribute to him — to his artistry, to his wonderful musicality but also to thank him for the 100s of 1,000s of children he helped through supporting Childline.”

From Childline’s official website:

Childline is here to help anyone under 19 in the UK with any issue they’re going through. Whether it’s something big or small, our trained counsellors are here to support you.

Childline is free, confidential and available any time, day or night. You can talk to us on the phone, by email or through 1-2-1 counsellor chat. Whatever feels best for you.

Our counsellors are trained staff and volunteers. All sorts of people become Childline counsellors. They could be 16 or 60. They could be gay or straight – or anywhere in between. They come from lots of different backgrounds and places.

What they all have in common is they want to help young people.

They’re real people who want to support you with any issue you’re facing. They’re trained but they don’t follow a script.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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#GivingTuesday 2016

We have “Black Friday.”

We have “Cyber Monday.”

But don’t forget we also have “Giving Tuesday.”

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.

Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

Let me do my part here and suggest a few of MY favorite organizations that do fantastic work throughout the year.

• Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS: Since 1987, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has helped men, women and children impacted by HIV/AIDS across the country and across the street receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.

• The Ali Forney Center: The Mission of the Ali Forney Center is to help homeless Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth be safe and become independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood. You can donate items from the Center’s “Amazon Wish List” like socks, sweat shirts, thermal underwear and more by clicking here.

• The St. Therese Center in Las Vegas: a food pantry service, underwear & socks program, haircuts, a daily sandwich program and many emotional support services make this charity an unsung hero in Las Vegas for those affected by HIV/AIDS.

• The Bright Star Foundation in Las Vegas: focuses on one thing – to financially and strategically support other organizations that see homeless LGBTQ youth fall through the cracks.

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News Round-Up: November 25, 2016

Some news stories you may have missed:

• Out boxer Orlando Cruz looks to become first gay World Champion boxer on Saturday.

• It’s that charitable time of year! Here’s a list of organizations that put your LGBT charity dollars to good use.

• A McDonald’s franchise in Arkansas, found in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act for firing an HIV+ employee, ordered to pay over $100,000 settlement.

• The Secret Service may have to pay $3 million a year leasing two floors of Trump Tower in order to protect President-elect Trump and family. Taxpayers foot the bill, and Trump gets a financial windfall.

• A straight LGBT ally’s parents asked her to remove her Human Rights Campaign sticker from her car before driving to Thanksgiving dinner. The parents said they found the emblem “offensive.” She refused.

• President-elect Trump apparently hates this picture of him. I don’t see why. Expect to see it a LOT on The Randy Report.

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Mike Pence: Donald Trump Has Given “Tens Of Millions” To Charity

Moments ago, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that his running mate Donald Trump has given “tens of millions” of dollars to charities.

Within minutes, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold sent an email to the Trump campaign asking for details for those donations.

Fahrenthold has been doing some deep reporting on Donald Trump’s foundation and it’s spending habits. Very interesting read.

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Who Likes Hunky French Firemen?

Just checking, but I’m not the only one who think firemen are way hot, right?

Credit French photographer Fred Goudon for this uber-sexy 2016 charity calendar featuring hunky, handsome (and almost naked) French firefighters.

Proceeds from the sales of the calendar will go to the charity Pompiers Sans Frontières, a French organization that provides humanitarian aid.

“For me and for many others, firefighters are heroes. Every single day, these guys are out there saving people’s lives,” Goudon told The Local. “And they’re all so nice, so strong… and you can see it in the pictures that there is a kind of pride in them that others don’t have.”

For more info about the calendar – click here.

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Las Vegas: Olivia Newton-John Launches Pink and Blue for Two Wines

Olivia Newton-John (R) and nephew Emerson Newton-John (L)

I had the pleasure (hello – wine involved, how could it not be pleasure?) to attend a media event this week where Las Vegas headliner and music icon Olivia Newton-John hosted the launch of Pink and Blue for Two wines, now being sold at the Flamingo Las Vegas’ Center Cut high-end steak house and at the hotel’s boutique store.

Everyone knows I’m a wine lover, and I have to say – I had the Chardonnay and it’s excellent.

With proceeds from sales going to support the PB42 campaign and the wellness programs at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Center in Australia, you might assume the wine (being a charity wine) is a “secondary” or “less than” wine from Meadowcraft Winery. But it’s very, very good.

There’s also a Merlot for red wine lovers. And ONJ picked them out herself.

Co-hosting the event was Emerson Newton-John, Olivia’s nephew, who founded Pink and Blue for Two. The charity campaign encourages men and women to take part in breast and prostate exams as a way to catch possible cancers early.

For folks who can’t get to Las Vegas, you can order the wine online (for a great cause) by hitting this link.

All photos by Denise Truscello

Olivia Newton-John with Tom Meadowcroft of Meadowcroft Winery and Emerson Newton-John

Hubby Michael and I with Emerson and Olivia
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Think On This…

(graphic via Memeographs)

I want you to think on this:

As thousands of anti-gay folks pour hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars into a fund to help middle-class pizza restaurant owners in Indiana ‘cope’ with going public with their anti-gay animus:

• Homeless shelters go begging for funds to help those out in the freezing cold.

• Food pantries hope for contributions to help those who are hungry. Every. Single. Day.

• LGBT youth turned out by their families for being who they are search for a safe place to lay their heads for the night.

But folks who can proudly stand and say they wouldn’t accept payment to feed a celebration of love of a same-sex couple are looking at a windfall of over $840,000.

29,000 have donated to help a middle-class family that owns a pizza restaurant.

Where were they for the homeless and hungry?

Tell me again how “Christ-like” they are…

Better yet – show me.

Here’s MY call to action.

LGBT activist Scott Wooledge has launched a campaign to raise funds to help Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Fund, which helps homeless LGBT youth. Can I ask you to hit this link and donate?

Anything. $5. $10. Whatever. It all helps.

And then, one more favor – can you share that link on social media?

Show the world love is stronger than hate.

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USF Kappa Sigma Brothers Bring Margaritas, Massages & “Magic Mike” To Charity Auctin

Down at the University of South Florida, the brothers of Kappa Sigma took their annual fraternity auction in a “Magic Mike” direction with some promo videos to help loosen the purse strings at their event.

The event auctioned off date packages with the brothers, some of which included margaritas, sky diving and massages to help the men raise over $2,700 for Fisher House, which aids wounded veterans and their families in recovering as they come home from war. Along the way, the evening also featured a choreographed routine a la “Magic Mike” to BSB’s “I Want It That Way.”

(Ok, so maybe walking the runway and dropping some of their clothes along the way also had SOMETHING to do with the fund-raising…)

Check out one of the videos below.